OUT with the knitting and in with the iPads.
Okay, maybe not totally out with the knitting – but Desley Chorlton said people would be amazed by how quickly older Australians picked up on new technology.
Mrs Chorlton is the Centacare Brisbane North and Moreton Bay area general manager and has been busy for Seniors Week, setting up events to help keep senior Australians connected.
She said a lot of her clients were taking up iPads, email and Facebook to stay connected with their families.
“We’ve seen some great benefits in people actually who haven’t been able to visit family members, being able to now see them on a daily basis,” she said.
“We’ve got people in their nineties that are FaceTiming their grandchildren and great grandchildren and I think we’ve broken down quite a few barriers.
“There’s some thought that older people won’t understand computers and it’s for the new generation, but a lot of our younger people are amazed at what grandma and grandpa can now do.”
This Seniors Week 2020 celebrated the Day of Solidarity between Generations, which was especially important during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Mrs Chorlton also wanted to celebrate the resiliency of older Australians.
“Our older people are very resilient and I think that’s probably something that needs to be remembered during COVID, you don’t get to eighties, nineties, and hundreds without having gone through hard times, bad times, lean times,” she said.
“I think we’ve got a really resilient generation who in many respects are taking COVID in their stride.
“They’re observing social distancing, they’re being careful – but in the whole scheme of their life experiences, this is just another life experience that they’re going through.”
Council on the Ageing Queensland chief executive Mark Tucker-Evans said Queensland Seniors Week provided opportunities for people across all generations to connect.
“We need to keep those connections, keep showing intergenerational solidarity, keep showing each other respect and care after the pandemic is over,” he said.
“This pandemic could change forever the way we live together in our communities”.
He said 28,500 people have signed up to the Care Army to look out for those who are older, vulnerable, or in quarantine.
“When we connect with people of all ages and backgrounds, we often find that there is more that connects us than divides us,” he said.
Mrs Chorlton said during Seniors Week, Centacare was working across all their regions to facilitate interactions between generations.
She said in the Moreton Bay area they had an elders in schools program.
“So this is a sharing of culture and language between our elders and the younger generations,” she said.
It ran in both primary and secondary schools in the area.
“That’s a regular feature in what we’re doing,” Mrs Chorlton said.
She said Centacare worked closely with parishes too like in Aspley’s Our Lady and St Dympna’s Parish parish where younger people were coming into the centre on a monthly basis.
“They join together with our older clients and participate in activities together,” she said.
She said older Australians were teaching younger people skills like the “joy of knitting” and younger people would help the older Australians relive the fun of hopscotch and playing tag.
Centacare’s role in facilitating those groups in parishes and schools were “so important”, Mrs Chorlton said.
She said the benefits flowed both ways.
“There’s a lot of children that we find that are in primary schools, they might not have a grandparent that’s close by,” she said.
“So in some respects, it’s sort of like adopting a grandparent – it’s an older person that can give you that warm smile and can tell you you’re doing a great job and can appreciate the specialness of each child.”
She said there was a whole different way of looking at an older person when you actually got to know them.
“They’ve lived a full life and have a wealth of experiences and adventures and interests and skills,” she said. “It’s breaking down those stereotypes that society often imposes on an older person.” Seniors Week was a time to celebrate this, she said.
